Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Definition
Verb tense refers to the grammatical category that expresses the time of an action or state of being. It indicates whether the action is happening in the past, present, or future.
Related terms
Regular Verbs: Regular verbs follow predictable patterns when forming their past and present tenses.
Irregular Verbs: Irregular verbs do not follow predictable patterns when forming their past and present tenses.
Overregularization Errors: Overregularization errors occur when children apply regular verb rules to irregular verbs incorrectly. For example, saying "runned" instead of "ran."